Pop Forecast for Dec. 28: The Hateful Eight, Air Farce and more

Bordertown debuts, and Rachel Patten releases new disc

Kurt Russell, left, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Bruce Dern in The Hateful EightPhoto: The Weinstein Company

Postmedia News

Published: December 28, 2015 - 12:33 PM

Chris Lackner

“You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows,” Bob Dylan sang, but these days, a guide through the seemingly endless flurry of pop culture offerings is just what we need. With that in mind, here is what’s on the radar screen in TV, music and film for the coming week:MOVIES

Big release on Jan. 1: The Hateful Eight

Big picture: Nothing says “New Year’s hangover movie” like two hours of near-constant gunshots. Quentin Tarantino’s latest is about eight deadly strangers with one deadly connection. It’s almost like the classic board game Clue: The only murder weapons are gun, rope and knife, and every room holds a body — but there are no suspects (everyone is either murdered or a murderer). The Hateful Eight is set after the U.S. Civil War, but it’s a western at heart. Consider it Tarantino’s followup to Django Unchained.

It centres on an ensemble of bounty hunters, outlaws and rogues competing for the bounty on fugitive Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh). Front and centre are Kurt Russell and Samuel L. Jackson as criminal hunters “The Hangman” and Major Marquis Warren (a former union soldier). When a winter blizzard unexpectedly entraps all the deadly players at a stagecoach stopover called Minnie Haberdashery (presumably founded by an ex-Hogwarts’ professor), nobody plays nice. The weather outside is frightful, but so is the forecast action inside.

Forecast: By this point, you’ll be sick of all that “peace on Earth” and “joy to the world” rhetoric. Tarantino has the perfect anecdote. His usual ingredients: blood, bodies, pop cultural references and Jackson playing a badass.

Big picture: Seth MacFarlane’s newest animated series is a timely one. Culture clashes are mined for laughs in Mexifornia, a fictional town on the U.S.-Mexican border. This cartoon is essentially an animated version of the nightmares of Donald Trump supporters — only the jokes are all intentional. Mexifornia is the kind of place with a “deportation cannon,” and where the alienated, lone white guy at a BBQ says thinks like, “we’re still in charge, we still have the vice presidency.” The show focuses on the unlikely friendship that forms between a U.S. border patrol agent, a Mexican immigrant and their families.

This could be MacFarlane’s first series that uses political incorrectness as a force for good. The impressive voice cast includes Hank Azaria (The Simpsons), Alex Borstein (Family Guy), and Judah Friedlander (30 Rock).

For yucks on New Year’s Eve, tune into the annual Air Farce special, featuring the likes of Don Ferguson and Luba Goy. Who will the special guests be this year? Given Prime Minister Trudeau seems to be everywhere at the moment (I think the Liberals already cloned him), don’t count out an appearance.

Forecast: Bordertown should be must-see viewing in U.S. schools. As for New Year’s Eve, do you really need to watch the empty, perma-smiling vessel that is Ryan Seacrest cheer a ball descending a flagpole in Times Square again this year? Canadians should stick with Air Farce and then turn off their TVs — maybe pay attention to the people around them when the clock strikes midnight.

Honourable Mention: Sherlock: The Abominable Bride (Jan. 1, PBS). This 90-minute special transports Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock Holmes and Martin Freeman’s Dr. Watson to Victorian London. The gothic tale, set in 1895, will also appear in select Canadian theatres on Jan. 4 and 6. Am I the only one who wants to see Tarantino put his own spin on Sherlock Holmes — starring Samuel L. Jackson? “(Bleep) elementary, my (bleep) dear (bleep) Watson (bleep)!”

Big picture: There’s no “big release” this week, so I’ll offer my Top 4 of the year. The Alabama Shakes’ soulful, southern-fried rock is never far from my playlist. Leon Bridges debut showed he’s an old soul, or that Otis Redding and Sam Cooke are his Obi-Wan-esque spirit guides. For some CanCon, take a musical journey to Whitehorse, the husband-and-wife songwriting duo of Luke Doucet and Melissa McClelland: They left no creative bridge untravelled in their latest roots rocker. And the mesmerizing art rock of Calgary’s Braids made the Polaris Prize short list for good reason.

Meanwhile, I’ll let the lyrics from this week’s lone new release speak for themselves. In Patten’s debut single, Fight Song, she croons “This is my fight song, take back my life song, prove I’m all right song.” (I can guarantee that trite little ditty doesn’t make an appearance on The Hateful Eight soundtrack.)